


Everyday Ladybug

by SailorChibi



Series: Lovesquare 2019 Ficlet Expansions [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir is a romantic at heart, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Identity Reveal, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Marriage Proposal, POV Adrien Agreste, Plagg Is So Done (Miraculous Ladybug), Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Romantic Fluff, Secret Identity Reveal, Supportive Plagg (Miraculous Ladybug), engagement proposal, proposal, six month anniversary, spans several years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-19 02:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29867547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: How a six month anniversary gift turned into a reveal, and then later into the best thing of Adrien Agreste's life.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Lovesquare 2019 Ficlet Expansions [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1435837
Comments: 13
Kudos: 148





	Everyday Ladybug

**Author's Note:**

> This is an expansion to my [2019 Ladrien June prompt Piano](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19046746/chapters/46088341). The original prompt fill is included at the end of this chapter.

“What do you think is an appropriate gift for a six-month anniversary?” Adrien asked out loud. He was laying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, lazily tossing a ball in the air.

“Cheese,” Plagg said.

Adrien sighed. “For the hundredth time, Plagg, I’m asking about Ladybug. Not you.” He didn’t even know why he bothered anymore. No matter what the occasion, Plagg was always going to be of the opinion that cheese was the answer. At first the suggestion had been sort of endearing, but now, as Adrien’s and Ladybug’s anniversary neared, it was just getting annoying.

Normally by this point, Adrien would’ve sought out Nino’s help. Nino was amazing at helping Adrien to navigate the sort of confusing social conventions that came with having had a severely restrictive social life for too many years. However, in this particular case, that wasn’t an option because Nino wasn’t even aware that Adrien was dating someone, much less that Adrien was dating Paris’s favorite superhero.

He dropped the ball and closed his eyes, pressing his hands to his face with a groan. Ladybug had asked that he not tell anyone they were dating, and at the time Adrien had happily agreed to that. He understood her reasons behind it better than she could have imagined: it would put undue stress on both of them if anyone found out they were dating, and that was the last thing they needed.

He just hadn’t realized at the time how complicated it could be. It was bad enough that he had to lie to his friends and family about his secret identity, but now he couldn’t even tell them about something that brought him untold amounts of joy. And worse yet, he couldn’t ask for anyone’s advice on what to get for Ladybug. He was petrified that he was going to get her something totally inappropriate, and his only source of help was _not_ being helpful in the least.

It was totally hopeless.

“Oh, come on, kid. It’s not that bad.” A light weight settled on Adrien’s chest. A cheesy burp followed. Adrien wrinkled his nose and moved his hands away from his face so that he could glare at his rude kwami.

“It _is_ that bad, Plagg. What if I get her something that freaks her out? Or what if I get her something that she hates?” His pulse quickened at the thought. He regularly had nightmares where Ladybug discovered that he was Chat Noir and immediately dumped him, and that was bad enough.

But if she dumped him just because he plain wasn’t good enough even as Adrien Agreste? Then he was well and truly screwed. She had already made her lack of feelings towards Chat Noir perfectly clear. His one chance to make this work was to make Ladybug fall so deeply and irrevocably in love with him that his eventual reveal as Chat Noir didn’t matter to her. That meant he had to make this gift _perfect_ …

Plagg sighed. “Okay, okay, fine. I still say that cheese is the best gift –”

“For you,” Adrien said pointedly. “Cheese is the best gift _for you_. Last time I checked, Ladybug does not regularly consume twice her weight in Camembert.”

“She would if she knew how delicious Camembert is,” Plagg muttered.

Adrien glared at him. “Is this you trying to be helpful? Because it’s having the opposite effect.”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Kid. It’s not like you can take her out to your favorite restaurant,” Plagg said. “I’d suggest flowers, but you literally just gave her a bouquet of flowers last week, so…”

“I know,” Adrien said, letting his head fall back so he could stare at the ceiling again. Obviously he and Ladybug were pretty restricted as to what they could do on their dates, so Adrien usually did whatever he could to make their limited dates special. He had never imagined that might come back to bite him in the ass, but here they were.

He was reluctant to try buying Ladybug any kind of clothing. He knew her favorite color was pink, but he didn’t actually know if she even wore pink because he never saw her in anything except her suit. For all he knew, it was a color she loved but didn’t like to wear – after all, it had never occurred to him to explicitly quiz her on the clothing she wore _under_ her suit.

And aside from all that, he had no idea what size she wore. The miraculous magic kept him from being able to judge her size too closely. He would be mortified if he accidentally bought her something too big or too small. That meant clothing was out, and he was reluctant to buy her something like a hat, scarf, or gloves when it was the middle of summer and she wouldn’t be able to use them for a while.

Food was another option, since he at least knew Ladybug’s favorites in that area for sure, but he surprised her with her favorite foods all the time. That didn’t seem special enough – and it seemed like their six-month anniversary should be special in some way. He ran through a mental list of the other things that he knew Ladybug liked, but none of them quite right except for –

“Jewelry,” said Plagg.

Adrien sighed. “I thought of that, but I didn’t know if that would be appropriate. Is it too much too soon?” He lifted his head to look at Plagg. Jewelry was the obvious answer, but he didn’t want to freak Ladybug out by buying her something that was _too_ much. He’d been told in the past by various people that sometimes he could be a little too extravagant.

“I’m not saying you should give her a ring!” Plagg said. “Or even earrings because you know she’d never be able to wear them. But I don’t see anything wrong with buying her a necklace or a bracelet. Isn’t that what Nino gave Alya for their sixth month anniversary?”

“How on earth do you remember that?” Adrien said in amazement.

Plagg sniffed. “I _can_ pay attention to things that aren’t cheese. I just choose not to,” he said loftily.

“Clearly. I didn’t even think about that,” Adrien said, but Plagg was right. Nino had surprised Alya with a very pretty bracelet, which Alya had proudly shown off to anyone who would pay attention. If Nino had done that for Alya, then surely Adrien about do it for Ladybug?

He smiled to himself and rolled off the bed, landing on his feet. Plagg was thrown off his chest with a yelp. Adrien tossed an apology over his shoulder as he ran over to his closet and grabbed his jacket and wallet. It was early evening, which meant his father and Nathalie would be preoccupied with business matters for a while yet. He had more than enough time to sneak out to a couple of jewelry stores.

“I want cheese for helping,” Plagg said, folding his little arms.

“If you help me leave now, I’ll give you a whole wheel of Camembert later,” Adrien coaxed, gesturing to the fridge. Plagg held out for all of thirty seconds before his natural greed won out.

“Fine,” he conceded.

“Excellent. Plagg, claws out!” One green flash of light later, Chat switched on his music player and left through the window to the sweet sound of a piano medley. If anyone came close to his room, they would assume he was practicing and wouldn’t bother him.

Chat made his way north, heading towards some of the smaller shops – he knew Ladybug well enough to know that she would appreciate something unique, and that seemed like the best place to find something like that. He landed in an alley and detransformed, ushering Plagg into his shirt pocket. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets, ducked his head, and stole into the nearest store.

It was a fancy place, but not too intimidating, with a nice selection. Still, he didn’t find anything that he liked. He went to a couple more stores with the same results. By the time he left the fifth store, he was beginning to get frustrated. He knew what he wanted, but he was having a difficult time finding it. The thought of having a piece specially made crossed his mind, but that would take time and he had probably left it too late for that…

And then, in the seventh store he went to, he found it.

“This is our Ladybug and Chat Noir collection.” A young saleswoman approached him, a kind smile on her face. “Do you see something you like?”

“Could I see that one?” Adrien asked softly, pointing to the necklace that had captivated him. The pendant was strung on a white gold chain that looked pretty strong, which he liked – he would hate to buy Ladybug anything that was too delicate, because he knew she’d be devastated it anything ever happened to it. The chain was also long enough for her to be able to wear the necklace as a civilian and slip the pendant beneath her shirt if she wanted to.

The pendant itself was a ladybug with a ruby for the body. The wings were white gold with five, miniature black opals affixed to each wing. As the saleswoman pulled it out and handed it over, he saw that the underside of the ladybug’s body was white gold as well. He rubbed his thumb over the smoothness of the gem, picturing the look on Ladybug’s face when she saw it.

“You can get it engraved,” the saleswoman told him. “The underside, I mean.”

“Yes,” Adrien breathed. “This is perfect. Can I have the word ‘forever’ engraved on it?”

“Absolutely. If you’ll come over here, you can pick out your font.” She led him over to another counter and showed him a selection of fonts. Adrien examined the options critically for a couple minutes before picking one out.

He got to watched while she engraved the pendant, and his heart fluttered in his chest when he saw the finished product. It cost him a significant amount of his savings, but he honestly did not care. He had finally found the perfect thing for Ladybug and he couldn’t wait to give it to her. He clutched the bag protectively to his chest as he made his way back to the mansion.

The hard part was waiting the remaining three days before he could actually give it to her, but at last it was Friday night and Ladybug was landing outside his window. Adrien exhaled slowly, hoping that his nerves weren’t visible on his face as she pushed the frame up and stepped inside. She saw him standing there and a huge smile spread across her face.

“Hi!” she chirped, straightening up. “What a week. I’m so glad it’s over.”

“I have something for you,” Adrien blurted out, and then immediately wanted to slap himself. He’d planned to let Ladybug get relaxed before he gave her the gift, but the anticipation was just too much.

Ladybug looked pretty surprised. “You do?”

“It’s our sixth month anniversary,” Adrien said shyly, hoping she wouldn’t think it was silly that he knew that.

Her eyes widened. She did some fast counting on her fingers and then a look of pure horror came across her face. “Oh my god. Adrien, I’m so sorry. I completely forgot. I thought it was next week.”

She’d been keeping track too! Adrien’s shoulders relaxed and he found himself smiling. “That’s okay. You have way more on your mind than I do.”

“It’s not okay. I have something for you too. I should have brought it with me.” Ladybug looked so distressed that Adrien couldn’t help walking over to her and pulling her into a hug.

“I’m not mad,” he whispered to her. “Really, I get it. You can bring me your gift next time.”

Ladybug sighed. “I don’t understand how you put up with me sometimes.”

Because I love you, Adrien wanted to say. But he wasn’t sure if he should. They hadn’t said those words to each other yet. He had been in love with Ladybug for as long as he’d known her, but she didn’t know that since she didn’t know he was Chat. He was worried that if he said it to her too soon, she would assume that Adrien just loved the public image of her. He knew what that was like, since he had run into it plenty even as a civilian, and it was not what he wanted for the two of them.

So instead, he said, “I could say the same to you. It’s an honest mistake. But can I give you my gift now?”

“Don’t you want to wait until I have yours? I could go get it…” Ladybug said, pulling back slightly.

“No! I want to give it to you now!” Adrien said, well aware that he sounded like a whiny little kid, and Ladybug giggled.

“Okay, okay. Wow me,” she said with an expectant smile.

Adrien grinned back and quickly handed her the box. He watched her closely as she opened it and knew that he’d hit a hole in one by the way her eyes got all shiny when she saw the necklace. Her fingers trembled as she touched the ladybug, rubbing her thumb over the word ‘forever’.

“I hope that whenever you wear it, you’re reminded of the fact that you’re the miraculous Ladybug no matter what costume you wear,” Adrien said.

“Oh, Adrien…” Ladybug kissed him then, soft and sweet, and hugged him so tightly that it hurt. Adrien didn’t care. That gift had been worth every moment of the struggle now that he finally had his precious lady in his arms.

**\-- Ladrien June 2019 Prompt: Piano--**

“You’re having a piano recital?”

Adrien glanced up from the remains of his physics homework and blushed faintly when he saw the engraved invitation in Ladybug’s hands. The sight of the looping whorls of silver ink made his stomach turn over.

“I’m supposed to be,” he said, because there was no point in denying it when she held the proof in her hands.

“Why haven’t you mentioned it?” Ladybug asked, looking curious. “It’s tomorrow morning. You didn’t invite me or your friends.”

He looked at her suspiciously. “How do you know I didn’t invite my friends?”

It was _her_ turn to blush, and she coughed and said quickly, “I just… assumed you hadn’t.”

It was one of those awkward moments where it would’ve been _so easy_ to push, but, out of respect for his girlfriend, he refrained. He loved Ladybug too much to make her uncomfortable with questions she couldn’t, or didn’t want to, answer.

“You’re right. I didn’t,” he said, and she looked relieved. “I guess it’s because I didn’t really want to do the recital in the first place. My teacher and my father wanted me to so I said yes, but now he’s not even going to be there.” Saying it out loud left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Your dad isn’t? Why not?” Ladybug seemed more resigned than surprised as she asked, which was honestly fair.

“He’s got some… _something_ ,” Adrien muttered. Nathalie had tried to explain, but Adrien hadn’t wanted to hear it. He didn’t like the idea of performing in front of other people, and had only agreed because he thought it would make Gabriel happy… or even proud.

So much for that.

“So no one will be there?” Ladybug was frowning.

“Well, my teacher will be there. And some other students who are performing. Other parents.” He hoped he didn’t sound as bitter as he felt.

Ladybug’s frown deepened. “That’s awful. I’m sorry, Adrien.”

“It’s not your fault my dad sucks,” he said, sighing. They’d talked about his father before. Gabriel might not know it, but there was no love lost between him and Ladybug.

“It’s still not fair.” Ladybug seemed to come to a decision then, because she looked back at him. “Would you… is it okay if I come?”

Adrien stared at her in astonishment. “Really? But… you hate going out in public in your costume.”

And he couldn’t even blame her for that. Over the past three years, Ladybug’s and Chat’s popularity had risen with each win. It had gotten to the point where people would mob them for photographs and pictures. Both of them tried to stay away from the public eye as much as they could.

“Let me worry about that,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be there, and I’ll even wear that beautiful necklace you bought me.”

“I… I’d like that,” Adrien admitted, turning away from his homework. “It would make me really happy if you’d come.”

“Then I’ll be there,” she said, like it was just that easy. “What about your friends?”

“Piano recitals are boring. I don’t think they’d want to come,” Adrien said. Truth be told, he was a little afraid of inviting people and having them not bother to come. He got enough of that attitude from his father.

“I think you’re wrong,” Ladybug said softly, but she was kind enough not to press it.

She stayed a while longer before leaving just before 11pm. Adrien noticed with bemusement that she took all six invitations with her when she went. He couldn’t understand why she’d want them all until the next day, when he walked out on stage.

There, right smack dab in the front row, was Alya, Nino, Chloé, Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng, and Marinette. Adrien stared at them in wonder, realizing that Ladybug had to be behind this. How had she gotten them to come on such short notice?

And then he saw it.

For their six month anniversary, he’d let his corny side out and bought a necklace for Ladybug. Strung on a white gold chain, the pedant was a ruby ladybug with five, miniature black opals affixed to each wing. He’d had the word ‘forever’ engraved on the belly of the ladybug.

Marinette was wearing that necklace.

Adrien stood there like an idiot halfway across the stage, frozen, staring at her.

She grinned at him like they were the only people in the room, a familiar, confident grin that had always made Adrien weak at the knees. Then she winked and blew him a kiss, and Adrien’s heart restarted with enough force to make his breath catch.

Even with the realization of her identity thundering through him, only one thought surfaced above the maelstrom.

_She‘s here. Ladybug‘s_ here _. She promised she would come and she_ did _._

He couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. He beamed at her, so happy he thought he might pass out, and walked over to take his seat. He set his fingers to the keys and began: a song for his beautiful lady straight from his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


End file.
